I guess it allows Murdoch & Co to distance themselves from the whole affair.

and I don't want to give too much to the apathy-nicks on the other thread but going from murdered kids to victims of terror and dead soldiers proved a little too much.

Hardly surprising given the exodus of advertisers.

But it seems that Rupe has destroyed a paper to keep the BSkyB deal afloat.

It will not surprise me if The Sun On Sunday appears soon...

Will News International launch another slightly less sleazy paper to take its place?

I was wondering where this story was going but that is genuinely amazing news.
That does mean the 'last ever' issue, yeah?

Part of me is very happy that the NotW will be no more. On the other hand -

- I imagine that many of those implicated in the phone hacking no longer have anything to do with the paper

- Many people untainted with the scandal may be affected. Not everyone whose job may be at risk (and I've not seen anything about potential job losses, I'm speculating that closing the UK's biggest circulation newspaper will not be without impact) is a phone-hacking journalist. People from distributors through to ancillary staff and those who clean the offices could be affected. Thus:

- I would much rather have seen the blocking of Sky's proposed BSkyB takeover, which would have hit Mr Murdoch in both pocket and reputation (business reputation, not sure if he has any other) rather than this closure which seems like a diversionary tactic.

Not that I think many jobs will actually go, they'll be channeled into a Sunday Sun.

What's she got on Murdoch I wonder?

to protect Brooks and the take over at the expense of a load of jobs. How very Murdoch.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/murdoch-folds-notw-over-phone-hacking-154355712...

It's big, sure, but it's a PR stunt. Would be amazed if it actually means anything. It's just NewsCorp trying to pacify the gullible.

done to protect his more valuable tv interests, his relationships with governments of whatever colour but I would doubt anything significantly will change with the way his media empire operates. The important thing in this case is that this shouldn't stop those responsible being prosecuted and this would increasingly seem to include certain elements of the police as well. This should have a long way to run yet. Like 5C, I too would like to know what Rebekah Brooks has on Murdoch, she certainly seems to be pretty well bomb-proof.

According to the Guardian this domain name was registered just two days ago. The evil buggers know exactly what they're doing...

You've got to hand it to the bastards. They're clever. The brand is now contaminated, probably beyond salvage, so just ditch it. Prune the staff by making them all redundant and then reappoint the best (or cheapest) of them to the new title: Sun On Sunday, which starts with a clean slate. It's completely cynical, but it'll probably work.

... in any of their companies I would be extremely nervous. Today has shown that the only safe one in Rupe's eyes is Rebekah Brookes.

The fact that such a large reaction came so quickly is puzzling. They seem to be falling over themselves to admit wrongdoing. In my cynical mind, I wonder if there is something much bigger we don't know about yet that they are hoping we don't get to find out?

Senior News International journalist. Quote of the day.

Jon Gaunt, Hugh Grant and Shirley Williams on Question Time.
Should be a lively, albeit slightly bumbling affair.

James Murdoch has, apparently, just said: "I am satisfied Rebekah Brooks neither had knowledge of nor directed" phone hacking at the News of the World, which makes her either incompetent or a liar.

(The quote is running as a news update on the front page of the BBC News website at 7.15pm but doesn't yet appear in any of the stories on the site.)

I've just heard the flipping awful news. Where the heck an I going to get my crusading scoops from now? You know, the likes of Cheryl getting back with Ashley or the fact that Kerry had two puddings today. Some decent people will be without jobs soon because that awful woman has considered herself above anyone else.

The floodgates are open now unless everyone in the know gets bogged down with severence packages that prevent them from talking. Is now the time for The Sunday Word..?

...between the police and the government (past and present) and their dealings with the Murdoch press I am wondering if one enormous can of worms has been prized open? Surely disgruntled ex hacks will be spilling rather a lot of beans?

And surely the BSkyB deal simply cannot go through now?

but clever. The brand was trashed so end it. It's just a business decision that solves more problems for Murdoch than it does for anyone else.

Not sure why anyone is celebrating this news. No one has been brought to account and all that has been achieved is more people out of work, most of whom I have no doubt were just doing their job even if the paper they did it for was politically/culturally unpalatable to those jumping up and down with glee.

A real result will only happen when the line in the sand is not drawn by Murdoch.

According to the Guardian website, Andy Coulson is going to be arrested tomorrow. Hope he doesn't do a runner.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/07/andy-coulson-arrest-phone-ha...

More trouble for Cameron, I'm hoping.

from Rebekah Brooks there...

Had 11,000 pages of notes and more than 4,000 names for people who may have been hacked.
On a regular production schedule, that represents hacking on an industrial scale.
Mind you it's a nice sized manuscript.

Calls it a 'sad day for freedom of expression'. He's hanging Coulson and Brooks out to dry in the plainest way possible now on Sky News.
'She's trashed the reputation of the NoTW and Rupert Murdoch should sack her.'
"Brooks had no journalism training - No 1 & 2 on the paper had no experience"
"The bosses should have seen it coming, and asked where are all these exclusives stories coming from, if not from despicable behaviour?"

rats in a barrel the lot of them. not just the NofTW: the police, the press regulators, those with political interests at stake. I'd rather follow rock'n'roll stars. They have much higher moral scuples.

in a bit of the auld famine in Africa? Thought not. I ain't gonna cry over a few journos, innocent or not. Let them rot.

I'll have to switch to "The Sunday Sport" now...

the smell of hubris in the evening...
murkier as the hours pass..
we're through the looking glass here, people

(and in the spirit of the internet, I can't provide a source - Reuters, I think) that if NOTW (the specific business bit of News International) is liquidated, the documentation pertaining to its business can then be destroyed rather than spending creditors' money on warehousing them, if the liquidator so chooses.

Not sure how legal it is, but assuming that a)Murdoch can afford more and better lawyers than just about anybody and b)Murdoch is the smart, cunning bastard he's supposed to be, today's action might be the ultimate example of sinking the ship to save the rats.

Too much power has been bestowed upon the press for decades to the point where the police, our protectors and servants, as well as the government whom we elect to run our country are scared to death of them.
How the fuck did that happen?
Sounds like a novel to me.

Everytime I think of Murdoch, and I try not to, I am reminded of Fry and Laurie's pastiche of It's A Wonderful Life where we see a what a world would look like without his influence.

This is business, not a self-inflicted "punishment" or act of contrition, be wary of anyone who suggests otherwise in the coming days.

As for people power, I don't think anyone actually held The Paper (as an entity) responsible, and no-one would have expected it to be trashed so instantly and unceremoniously - what they want is for The People Responsible to be held accountable, and that means blocking the BSkyB deal and hauling Coulson & Brooks over the coals, if not straight to chokey.

........heavily indebted Premier League football clubs the dominoes have started toppling at the front..........

by Peter Oborne, one of the most thoughtful of right-wing journalists:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/7075673/part_6/what-the-papers-wont-sa...

William Shawcross trying to defend the reputation of Murdoch on Today this morning ? That a once fine reporter and journalist who exposed Nixon and Kissinger's bombing of Camodia has been reduced to this is really shaming. But then, didn't he write some hagioigraphy of Rupe a few years back ?

I suggest that there's an element of our government and our press who should take up reading, specifically thrillers. Take politicians and press or press and police and you're fine, for a while at least. Mix all three into a scandal and it doesn't normally end well for any of the people involved. It's almost a cliche of the genre.

Future PMs should have that tattooed backwards on their foreheads so they can see it in the mirror each morning...

Eamonn Holmes voiceover:

So you were planning on boycotting the News Of The World this weekend were you? Well let me tell you what we have in the VERY LAST ISSUE EVER of this campaigning and revered newspaper.

Chantelle; my life story. Jordan; my hair nightmare. Louis; it was the NOTW that saved my life. Sharon; why I f**king hate Simon Cowell.

Buy the last issue and hand it down to your children's children. Comes with a free DVD of the best of Britain's Got Talent audition outtakes.

The Office of The Star is currently be raided by the police

...but that pic of Rebekah Brooks in her car looked very witch-like. Appropriate given the simultaneous mass coverage of Harry Potter. Bellatrix Lestrange anyone?

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwSDPYOf3XfrusS2esKWxQp5l5fDBw9...

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRRjWsQWdz8k3JtCz8ZbVCDVyxYl7DBQ...

(If someone can put them up, please do)

"
At least we don't have to worry about any of the NotW journalists if they're made redundant, after all we all know people on benefits get a 5 bedroom house and £50,000 a year don't we?"

Prediction

This will bring down the government. Eventually.

It will just resume under another name (web domain already registered).

Tommy Sheridan will get out. I despair.

Who buys this shit, anyway.

Incidentally, I heard Fred Macaulay on Radio Scotland asking people if they intend buying the last issue as 'collectors item'. You just know that there will be a sales spike, so the Murdochs can't really lose from this.

I don't mean the tawdry gossip rag about spit-roasting footballers and bed-hopping slebs, I mean the actual title itself, the name. It's such a great name for a newspaper. It may be a whopping five syllables long, but it has a nice rhythm to it and rolls off the tongue. It implies enormous scope and authority. "The News Of The World". If you had never seen the paper itself you might imagine it as this grand, noble journalistic institution with integrity and stature, its reporters scattered across the globe to keep their grateful readers well-informed about the stuff that really matters: "The News Of The World". What a waste of a great name.

But I listened to the PMs statement early this morning. I may have gotten this wrong (and if I do, it's because it was 403 am my time):

The Inquiries would seem to have quite a wide remit. My interpretation of it was that it's not just NewsCorp in the frame.

This is where my cynicism jumped in: is he trying to throw them some bones? Give them the "see? Not just us!" defense card?

It's not to say that the remit shouldn't be wide, but I question the motivation. I think this could get very very messy.

Both Brendan O'Neill in the Telegraph and Toby Young in the Spectator have written about why this might not be the bright glad morning that many premature grave dancers clearly hope.

Young's account of Fleet Street 'dark arts' rings true to me:

Without the unscrupulous, appalling, ‘shocking’ behaviour of red-top reporters, we probably wouldn’t know about Cecil Parkinson’s infidelity or John Prescott’s affair with his secretary. We wouldn’t know about the match-fixing antics of Pakistani cricketers or the corruption at the heart of Fifa. Yes, the ink-stained wretches regularly desecrate the graves of dead girls, but they also speak truth to power and they do it more often — and with more impact — than the broadsheets.

O'Neill flags up what he sees as a worrying development:

Yes, the tabloids can be ugly beasts at times and they frequently publish drivel; the News of the World went beyond even that, and someone at that paper should have tackled the moral rot head-on. But still, better to have a bad free press than a “good” controlled one. A “free press” designed to conform to Cameroonian tastes and morals is not a free press at all

I'm inclined to agree with these views. Whilst of course the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone or that of the families of dead servicemen is deplorable, it's less clear that the drawing of boundaries by some 'higher authority' (i.e. the government) 'for our own good' will prove to be a desirable outcome. It's easy to imagine the genuine and justified outrage about this episode being used to bury 'inconvenient' stories.

Oh, and as far as errant 'celebs' are concerned, it galls me that they are being portrayed as 'victims'. Well yes, up to a point...

It's not even about a dead teenager's phone being hacked into or even those of war dead or those who died in the 7/7 attacks.
It's about the government, the opposition, the parliament and other institutions being frightened to pursue what everyone knew - that a major news organisation had been breaking the law on a grand scale and that it had corrupted parts of the police force in the process.
This story is about how all of our institutions have been corrupted by the power of one or two news organisations. I'm not (solely) on anti-Murdoch agenda.
It's about how the executors of these institutions, often elected, often sworn to uphold the law, had chosen not to pursue the true legal course of action because they feared what may become of them in the media if they did.
The cops were running scared, MPs with something to hide, however trivial, were running scared too. With no regulation, there was no check or balance on rampant corruption.
And also, we cannot excuse the fact that the Prime Minister has taken into government, and paid from the public purse, a man who has probably perjured himself in court and lied to a parliamentary committee.
The PM was also alerted to this by the newspaper which investigated it, twice. But, due to a fear of the company the man clearly still had links to, he chose to ignore it, fearing the backlash.
And finally, when media companies wields their power so utterly, spread their own unelected agenda, and push for wholesale transformation in media legislation like News Corp and the DMG have, then we become a morally bankrupt democracy. They have been allowed to do so, while breaking the law, by people scared to challenge them.
If we needed an argument for a Reithian ideal of Public Service Broadcasting, nearly 90 years since it was first conceived, then this week has conclusively proved it.
Boris Johnson said this was a conspiracy cooked up by the Guardian and the Labour Party, and many people accepted that. I didn't but, I say, shame on all of us. We're worse than Italy. And that is shameful.

One of the best I've read in fact.

When I read this in today's Guardian, I *heard* it voiced by the narrator of Soap.

News Corp is a family-run company – and, more and more, a family imbroglio. Some of the intrigue: Rupert has ceded substantial power to his son James, who made the decision to close the NoW. While James's power is part of a calculated succession plan, he also has his own leverage: he is his father's closest family ally in accommodating Wendi, the patriarch's divisive third wife. His father needs his support.

James has an often tense relationship with his sister, Elisabeth, who has a tense relationship with Wendi. Elisabeth has built her own media company, which her father bought this year, giving her great say within the company. James and Elisabeth's relationship, indeed many of the family relationships, are facilitated by Elisabeth's husband Matthew Freud, the most famous, and most famously slippery, PR man in London. One of Freud's closest friends is Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News International, who almost everybody believes needs to be fired.

Rebekah, counselled by Matthew, has become James's most dedicated lieutenant. James and Matthew are determined not to fire her (indeed, she is an important instrument in Matthew's business).

As it happens, Wendi doesn't like Rebekah. Rupert, who has described Rebekah as a social climber in his family, can't press for her ousting for fear of siding with Wendi against his children.

Rupert's oldest son, Lachlan, once the presumed heir and now a sullen presence in Australia, fights with his brother and is most closely aligned with his sister Elisabeth. Their older half-sister, Prudence, is aligned with James. Ultimately, they will have four votes between them when it comes to running the company, with no tie-breaking mechanism.

edit.. kidpresentable posted it over at http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/billy-bragg-never-buy-the-sun
It is brilliant.